Excerpts from Powerful Mind: 12 Simple Keys – The Human Effectiveness Institute, February 2026
We all have a yearning, subconsciously, to get back to the Garden, to feel that numinous, magical thrill we remember from childhood. We yearn to have that feeling all the time, not just in momentary flashes, such as peak experiences that came out of nowhere on a beach or a mountain or in meditation, where we experienced the certainty of ubiquitous love all around us and throughout our own being.
In my book, Mind Magic, I speculated that the amount of information and question-producing stimuli processed daily by the average person has been accelerating since the invention of written language. I surmised that this acceleration causes a mental/emotional state I call the Emergency Oversimplification Procedure (EOP).
In this state of consciousness, questions are set aside, experiences are not assimilated, personal effectiveness is reduced, creativity is blocked, the awe and wonder of life that we felt as children fades away, we subscribe to black-and-white thinking imposed by others, we use prerecorded responses most of the time, and new learning and growth are stifled. We are coping but not mastering life.
We can regain our individuality, solve our problems through focused attention, become happier, and give back more to others. We can accelerate our growth by slowing down and choosing what to do next based on real value.
Keep asking the ultimate questions.
Why is there a universe at all? Who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing here?
When we first ask ourselves these questions as children, we are awed. We might experience an oxytocin (the “love hormone”) rush, with the hair at the base of our neck standing up and chills up and down our spine.
Most of us eventually give up on these questions as unanswerable. We don’t see how these ultimate questions relate to our daily lives, but they do. In ways we’re unaware of, we make hidden assumptions about these ultimate questions, leaving us with little motivation to act nobly. So, our lives tend to devolve into quiet desperation (Thoreau).
We come full circle and are reborn by allowing ourselves to return to our childhood perspective of awe and wonder.
As a starting point, let’s consider briefly how Einstein and Wheeler, two of the most advanced and sophisticated scientists of our time, contemplated these questions.
Einstein felt sure that the universe is evidence of an intelligence far greater than our own – an intelligence that our intelligence can learn to understand. This gave Einstein those oxytocin thrills all his life, from childhood through adulthood.
Wheeler postulated that the universe initially existed as probability waves and evolved into consciousness, collapsing them into the matter-energy spacetime universe we all experience. He coined the term “Participatory Anthropic Principle” to mean that we, as consciousness, participate in creating the universe we are a part of.
Both scientists were comfortable assuming that the universe can be thought of and described as one thing, of which we, the observers and co-creators, are intrinsic parts. Philosophers’ and scientists’ acceptance of this is a thread running through the history of thought, going back to long before the Rig Veda in the East and Thales in the West.
When considering the ultimate questions, it helps to begin there.
Visualize the whole universe as one thing.
Every individual of every species
Every idea
Every event
Every moment of time
Every percept
Every lump of matter and energy
All parts of one thing.
– Mind Magic
We may be on the verge of the next great leap in physics: a world where the universe is seen as intelligent, and each of us plays a creatively intrinsic role within that universe.
Whether scientifically validated or not, this worldview would radically change how we relate to one another. Simply keeping an open mind about this possibility will positively impact how people relate to one another.
We once believed in a mythos that awed and inspired us, and many of us still hold on to a piece of that in our religious or spiritual practices – an inclusive sense of idealism. We repeatedly emphasize the importance of keeping an open mind about anything being possible unless and until it is proven otherwise. This open-mindedness allows us to experience awe and wonder alongside logic and reason.
In this existential situation, it’s not unreasonable to converse with God in our minds if we feel inclined to do so. The conscious universe we are all part of is a real possibility; no existing law of science rules it out.
We can reclaim our right to think independently without being swayed by what others, even brilliant scientists, claim to be the truth. We can take back our autonomy. We can do this without invoking faith, wishful thinking, superstition, or belief in anything; we simply need to remember with maximum clarity that nothing has been proven either way yet.
We can utilize our newly developed inner visibility to identify what lifts us and what pulls us down, quickly reducing negative emotions, accepting whatever is happening as reality, and handling it constructively and patiently without getting caught up in it.
Our free will, personal freedom, and unwavering will are our most valuable assets. More important than our negative feelings, our will protects our positive feelings of love, joy, and wonder.
Having fun, such as when we’re engaged in our passion work, boosts our emotional, cognitive, and even physical well-being through effortless and natural body movement. This is the Flow state.
It felt incredibly powerful the first few times I experienced the Flow state as a young child. It seemed I had discovered another level of reality that felt very magical, although I was certain it had a scientific basis.
Whether starting over to lift a bad mood, enjoying the process of creating something in a Flow state, or whatever else we’re doing, the ability to focus our attention and notice what is happening inside and around us helps us reach the highest outcomes, even as we refrain from becoming attached to those outcomes.
The techniques presented in Powerful Mind aim to rekindle the magic of reality and initiate a positive upward spiral in our creativity.
Avoiding our usual habitual responses increases our chances for creativity and learning. We pause and rethink things.
Creativity, by definition, is always somewhat unpredictable. True freedom always exalts creativity.
Embrace the essence of life, such as wonder, awe, the Flow state, and spiritual moments. These peak experiences, as Maslow called them, have always been at the heart of the work of great artists, musicians, thinkers, poets, and others who have made life more beautiful and precious. By remaining open to these experiences, we find that they happen more frequently.
When we shift into the Flow state as a way of life, we transcend the ego, as if the ego had been training wheels that we can now take off. We can now sense and live from our authentic selves, our whole selves, not from the defensive ego but from the joyous muse within us. The muse was with us all along, although it may in reality be the One Self that is the universe, living through us.
